


in the lowlaid plot I was free

by xerampelinae



Series: a god big enough to hold your love [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Gods and Monsters, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Playing fast and loose with mythology, Pre-Kerberos Mission, blink and miss it violence, playing fast and loose with canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 08:34:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15968657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xerampelinae/pseuds/xerampelinae
Summary: “Please,” Keith’s father prayed, earnest and urgent as he knelt in the name of their village’s patron god, “please do not leave him alone if I cannot be here for him--“--please keep him safe for me.”A wind kicked up in the temple, stealing his attention. By the time he looked back, the offering was gone from the altar.-Keith, Shiro, and the Cosmic Rites.





	in the lowlaid plot I was free

It has been said since ancient times that one is both of a nurtured spark and the open cosmos: nurtured by those that came before, and the sky above, open with possibility.

Keith’s future was laid open long before it came to bel. As his mother labored long and hard for her first and only child, the skies cleared and the shower of stars reached its zenith. She felt the call of her god as the sweat cooled on her body--to leave, to fight once more for him against Zarkon’s empire--even as the child caught his first breaths and was laid down to shelter against her breast.

Keith’s father understood soldiers and he understood her mission. Given the chance, perhaps he would have followed her into the Empire, Keith strapped to his chest. But the chance was not there, the risk too great, and he stayed to tend the temple. He’d tended it long enough to know the change that came when he’d first found Krolia.

“Please,” Keith’s father prayed, earnest and urgent as he knelt in the name of their village’s patron god, “please do not leave him alone if I cannot be here for him--

“--please keep him safe for me.”

A wind kicked up in the temple, stealing his attention. By the time he looked back, the offering was gone from the altar.

-

 _Small flame,_ the God called with fathomless voice stitched through with song of how the sky loves the stars, when Keith was younger and lonely, when he was afraid.

When Shiro came to the village, the song turned to longing. It was not all of Keith’s choice, but it was part of it. And Keith took easily to the temple’s teachings. It was one of the things he remembered of his father and the starsong that had carried Keith in the years without him. 

The only thing Keith couldn’t manage was to be likeable to anyone save Shiro, but that concerned him less than it did Shiro. He would have happily lived a solitary life, if only Shiro were there.

-

Keith heard _Beloved_ for the first time the night before the Rites.

It was a siren song that had him mindlessly repeating the cleansing rituals with the others. A solitary action, despite the company, bathing by the underground stream.

The caverns beyond the stream were dark; most made their way with their hand to the wall as they made their way through perfumed mist to deep darkness. Keith copied the forerunners instinctively, feet moving steadily. Something changed when Keith entered. The darkness shifted from accommodatory to anticipatory.

The interloper came suddenly of the shadows, led by a glowing crystal bound to his neck. Keith froze under his creeping grasp before instinct took over: hands striking out with force, fingers scratching until blood blinded the interloper and Keith could kick him away and finally run.

Keith moved confidently in the dark, running easily and without issue over obstacles. A fire settled in his chest as a searing, welcome heat. And then Keith collided with something. Strong hands steadied him--Keith stilled at the eyes burning gold in the dark.

“Beloved,” a voice that was both fathomless and Shiro’s said.

“Please,” said Keith, and then in a voice that was both his and the crackling legion of a wildfire flaring back to life. “My lord.”

“Beloved,” the First God repeated in Shiro’s voice, catching at Keith’s gore-spattered hands. “What is wrong?”

“There was an interloper, my lord,” the Second God said in Keith’s voice, hands latching onto Shiro. 

Shiro’s golden eyes snapped vengefully in the direction Keith had run from, then gentled as he looked back down at Keith. “What would you have me do, Beloved?” the First God asked, caressing Keith’s cheek.

“It is our one night,” the Second God said quietly. “I wish only to be near you, my lord.”

They stood together, crowded by the sweet mists used to facilitate the ritual, and the First God looked fondly at Keith until the gold receded somewhat from his vision and it was Shiro’s eyes meeting Keith’s.

“Keith--” Shiro said, gathering him even closer than the gods had, “--are you alright?”

Keith nodded, feeling the Second God’s presence draw back as well. 

Shiro scanned Keith for injuries and finally relaxed, face coming alight a gentle pride. “I always knew you were meant for something amazing,” Shiro said, voice low with wonder. “To be chosen by the Second God--”

“You’re the amazing one,” Keith said, shoving his face into Shiro’s shoulder to hide the building heat in his face. Laughing, Shiro simply tightened their embrace. For a quiet minute they merely leaned together, and then a deep, warm purr rose from Shiro’s broad chest.

Startling, they all but jumped apart. Then they caught sight of each other’s glowing eyes--somehow familiar, even traced by divinity--and fell into laughter.

“Gods,” Shiro gasped eyes streaming, but slowly he sobered. “Keith, you know we don’t have to anything further. We’ve done-- _enough_ \--for the rites, we don’t have to go any further.”

Keith looked at him--really looked at him. Unsure, but--more worried for Keith than for any additional blessing that might be brought to their land by following the rites further.

“I trust you,” Keith said. “I’ll follow you to the end of all things, if that’s where your path ends. I want to. What are you going to do?”

“Not hurt you--” Shiro said, brow creasing with worry.

“I trust you,” Keith repeated, and they came together as one: Keith drawing Shiro down with him even as Shiro guided him to lie back across the rough-hewn floor.

-

“I’ve never done this before,” Keith admitted, voice soft as a banked fire, shapeless desire filling his chest.

“I know,” Shiro said, eyes lit up with the First God’s presence.

“I want to though,” Keith said, tentative and small.

“I know,” Shiro said again, reassuring. His hand stroked gently over Keith’s crown, then down one of the braids framing his face to tug it teasingly; as an undeclared adherent, Keith wore his hair in five braids that each represented one of the Five. “I’ll be as gentle as I can.”

Keith nodded, arms tightening around Shiro’s neck and drawing him closer still. Shiro was strong enough that he could be as unmoving stone, but he wasn’t. He let Keith arrange him as he wished, was attentive in a way that thrilled and reassured Keith’s nerves. It was a heady feeling, to be allowed so much, and Shiro’s eyes were fond in a way that seared through Keith and made him desperate.

“Will you--” he said, letting the brush of his mouth against the corner of Shiro’s mouth speak for him. Shiro’s head dipped immediately, mouth pressing warmly against his in a series of soft, reassuring kisses that helped stoke the fire in Keith’s chest. He wondered that he’d never noticed the fire before, for it had always been there, only unnoticed until called out to. Keith gasped and the next kisses deepened until they were sharing each breath, Keith shifting under Shiro’s welcome weight and following obediently when Shiro guided one leg over his hip.

The presence of their gods overflowed from their bodies to fill the cavern--the Second God’s presence poured out from Keith like the heat of a good bath, just on the edge of too hot and all the more refreshing for it; the First God was steady as the stars that turn overhead, empty spaces brimming with energy--all but intoxicating.

“Please,” Keith begged, when it felt as if the anticipation was a fire that would consume the whole of him from the heart out. Each kiss pressed to his mouth and across his body only stoked the fire that was the Second God in mortal flesh. His flesh. His hand pressed to Shiro’s, to the well of stars in him drawn forth from the First God.

“I have you, Keith,” Shiro said, and they drowned in the presence of their gods.

-

In the morning the sweet mists fell away as Shiro and Keith emerged, redressed in their short tunics and hands clasped tightly together. Their bodies and clothes spoke unknown volumes--linen torn at the shoulder of Keith’s tunic and his shoulder scraped; sourceless blood dried in smears and smudges here and there across their bodies but mostly on the body of Shiro’s tunic--but the flash of gold in their eyes was unmistakable. The waiting votaries stood in hushed silence.

Shiro was well-liked and trusted, but Keith--Keith had not been an expected choice. None hoped that Keith’s part in the rites would please any save, perhaps, Shiro. The votaries worried amongst their ranks with an agitated silence for the promised renewal of the land, of the desired bounty.

“The rites are done,” Shiro said, and the votaries fell to their knees. Some surged forward like a swollen river, eager to bend the ear of a Paladin; others watched hungrily for the semblance of opportunity. Shiro looked to none of them.

“Come,” he said instead, wrapping his arm around Keith’s shoulders and guiding him tenderly down the stone path. The temple proper, their intertwined future loomed ahead. “Beloved.”

Keith shivered once, aching and yearnful, and followed.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Hozier's "Work Song". Series title from Florence+the Machine's "Big God"  
> This one is kind of ?? how explicit do write??? I had to brainstorm what the Second God would call the First God with my parents because we're Asian. The First God's nicknames were only hard when trying to come up with what he'd refer to tiny!Keith as.


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